Finance MEC says there is hope in Gauteng

MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy. Picture: @GautengProvince/Twitter

MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy. Picture: @GautengProvince/Twitter

Published Nov 22, 2016

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Johannesburg - There is hope in Gauteng – more and more people have access to jobs and were able to receive proper medical care in most of the public health facilities. More than 5 million people have proper jobs and the population has grown to more than 13.2 million.

This was the view expressed by MEC for Finance Barbara Creecy when she delivered her medium term budget policy statement (MTBPS) in the Provincial Legislature this morning.

Creecy began her remarks by assuring Premier David Makhura and fellow legislature members that the Gauteng economy would grow far above the growth expectation to 0.5 percent announced by the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan when he delivered his own medium term budget in parliament on October 26.

According to Creecy, she projected the Gauteng growth expectation to 0.8 percent.

She said the provincial government supports the national effort to promote economic transformation and tackle the triple burden of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

“In June 2016, we held an Economic Indaba with business, organised labour and civil society to finalise the 2030 Gauteng Economic Development Plan. Subsequently, Premier Makhura has led a number of follow-up meetings to establish sector work streams and implement initiatives to grow Gauteng’s manufacturing and services.

“While it is early days, second quarter growth figures for the Gauteng economy indicate new and encouraging “green shoots”.

“Our provincial economy grew at 2.9 percent in the second quarter up from 0.1 percent in the first quarter,” Creecy said.

She said the Key drivers of the recovery were manufacturing (at 8.1 percent), finance and business services (3.3 percent), agriculture (3.2 percent) and transport (2.8 percent).

“These figures also indicate year on year growth of 2.6 percent in manufacturing and 2.7 percent in finance and business services.

“We expect Gauteng’s economy to perform above the National economy, by growing by 0.8 percent this year. The number of people employed in Gauteng has been increasing since 2010 reaching five million in 2015. The top five sectors for employment in Gauteng were manufacturing; transport; finance and business services; trade and community services,” she said.

In 2015 the province created 209 000 jobs; and in the first two quarters of 2016; 47 000 net jobs were created in Gauteng.

“Progress is also being made to revitalise and transform township economies across the province. To open markets to emerging entrepreneurs, Provincial Government has committed to spend 30 percent of its goods and services budget procuring goods and services from township suppliers.

“At the end of the second quarter, this year, we had already exceeded the 18 percent target for 2016/17, spending over R6.8 billion using over 1600 township suppliers,” she said.

She also said that their plan which emanated from their Economic Indaba in June this year to create business opportunities was bearing fruit.

“From the beginning of this financial year to date, the One Stop Investor Centre in Sandton, has assisted 1567 businesses with regulatory compliance and has engaged with 28 delegations looking for investment opportunities in our province,” Creecy said.

She also said the provincial government was on course ensuring that suppliers were paid within 15 days following instructions from Makhura.

“We have already made strides in this undertaking, with more than 65 percent of our departments ensuring 95 percent of their payments are made within 15 days.

New innovations that have assisted us to reach these targets include:

- Payment automation for both fixed and variable value leases, contracts and utility payments and

- Enforcing electronic invoice submission contractually for all tenders above R 250 000 in value.

“Gauteng’s green shoots arise from our deep seated understanding of the importance of partnership and team work with business, labour and civil society.

“The XiTsonga idiom says “Rintiho rin’we a ri nusi hove”; for those of you who are, like me historically linguistically disadvantaged, the idiom says “one finger alone cannot pick up grain”. Creecy said.

The Star

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